VideosDocuments
Navigation |
The Obama Organic Family Garden: Swimming in Sludge?
Unfortunately, something happened on the way to the realization of the First Lady's good intentions. Recently the National Park Service discovered that the White House lawn, where the garden was planted, contains highly elevated levels of lead -- 93 parts per million. It's enough lead for anyone planning to have children pick vegetables in that garden or eat produce from it to reconsider their plans: lead is highly toxic to children's developing organs and brain functions -- however, it's below the 400 ppm the EPA suggests is a threat to human health. State still lets Central Florida's sludge foul Everglades, critics sayKevin Spear The foul waters of Lake Okeechobee, the failing health of the Everglades and even sick dolphins along the South Florida coast might seem like troubles so distant they could hardly be the Orlando area's responsibility. Treatment of that watery waste produces sludge, which local sewage utilities at least partly disinfect and dispose of as fertilizer. A lot of that fertilizer winds up on cattle ranches and citrus groves south of Orlando, where rain runoff and flooding can release chemicals that poison the wetlands and waterways from here to Florida Bay. The Florida Legislature passed a law two years ago that environmental activists took as a victory that calls for an end to spreading of sludge within a vast area that drains into Osceola County's large lakes and then south to the Kissimmee River, Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades and the coastal estuaries of South Florida. 'Wreaking havoc'? Now those environmentalists are accusing state officials of sidestepping the law, even as the Everglades watershed gets sicker by the day. "There's a continued buildup of a pollutant that's wreaking havoc with the ecosystem," said Eric Draper, Audubon of Florida's policy director in Tallahassee. "It's going to be extremely expensive to clean up."
'Humanure' Victory: Green Toilet Wins Austin City ApprovalComposting commode is first to gain official stamp. by Asher Price It took more than four years of negotiations and construction, but this month an Austin Water Utility inspector gave final clearance to a glorified outhouse that is on the vanguard of down-and-dirty environmentalism. Known as a composting toilet, the East Austin commode relies on the alchemy wrought by bacteria to transform human waste into a rich trove of soil. Specialists in so-called humanure have hailed the approval of the toilet as a watershed moment for common-sense environmentalism. Monica Conyers pleads guilty in Synagro scandalPaul Egan / The Detroit News Detroit -- Detroit City Council Pro Tem Monica Conyers pleaded guilty to a five-year felony today in connection with the city sludge hauling scandal today.
Conyers, 44, spoke softly in federal court as she admitted taking bribes in connection with $1.2 billion Synagro Technologies Inc. contract the Detroit City Council awarded in 2007. Did Sewage Sludge Lace the White House Veggie Garden With Lead?
Starting in the late 1980s and continuing for at least a decade, the South Lawn was fertilized by ComPRO, a compost made from a nearby wastewater plant's solid effluent, a.ka. sewage sludge. Sludge is controversial because it can contain traces of almost anything that gets poured down the drain, from Prozac flushed down toilets to lead hosed off factory floors. Spreading sludge at the White House was a way for the EPA to reassure the public that using it as a fertilizer for crops and yards (instead of dumping it in the ocean, as had been common practice) would be safe. "The Clintons are walking around on poo," the EPA's sludge chief quipped in 1998, "but it's very clean poo." Synagro official pleads guilty to bribing Detroit Council memberMonday, June 15, 2009 "I conspired with others to provide money to elected officials in exchange for favorable votes before the City of Detroit," Rayford W. Jackson, 44, of Detroit told U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn. The council member Jackson admitted to bribing is not identified in court documents, which use the term "Council Member A." However, federal agents have electronic surveillance evidence linking City Councilwoman Monica Conyers to receiving alleged payments in connection with a $1.2 billion Synagro Technologies Inc. sewage contract, persons familiar with the investigation have told The Detroit News. Fish from river tainted with contaminants from sewage sludges spread on farmsFish from river may be tainted Several industries in the Decatur area use the chemical PFOA or perfluoroonctanoic acid in their manufacturing process. When the industries discharge PFOA-tainted waste into the Deactur's sewer system, the sludge is contaminated. I suspected that the waste water from the sewage treatment plant that is discharged into the Tennessee River might also be contaminated. IS SEWAGE SLUDGE REALLY FREE FERTILIZER TO THE FARMER?Press Release We are told that sewage sludge/biosolids are recycled organic human waste, which is true. What is not told is that from 80 to 100,000 chemicals are used in products for personal and home use, in industry, and medical and laboratory facilities. Any drugs or chemicals going down the drain into the sewer system may wind up on the land intact or as chemical mixtures never anticipated or tested for toxicity. The treated sludge also contains bacteria, viruses and intestinal worms and parasites. Class B sewage sludge can have 2 million fecal coliform indicator bacteria (thermotolerant E. coli) per gram (size of a sugar cube) which means there’s pathogenic bacteria in the sludge—but not what type or amount and this will be sprayed or spread on farm fields which will grow human and animal crops and grass for cattle. The waste water treatment plant has to follow EPA and state regulations for processing sewage sludge but this process does not remove the drugs, chemicals, toxic metals, or all of the bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Fecal Coliform Test Puts Public Health at Risk: Sludge -- biosolids -- food -- waterJim Bynum, VP, & Gail M. Bynum, Ph.D Neither the fecal coliform test nor any laws (Solid Waste, Hazardous Waste, Clean Water) protect farmers and the public who are not being told the truth about sludge contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms. Sludge is: 1) a solid waste; 2) a hazardous waste because of E. coli and other pathogens; and 3) a point source pollutant. The current use of the fecal colifom test itself is designed to inhibit the bacterial growth so as to reduce the number of viable but culturable E. coli to less than one percent of the total. It eliminates most indicator E. coli in the sludge sample by making them viable but nonculturable by standard culture methods. This allows unknown amounts of anitbiotic resistant pathogenic superbugs to be spread on farms, parks, school grounds and even home lawns. This practice violates any government regulation for work place safety, especially laboratory safety rules. 
|
NewsThe toxic sewage sludge prevention and mitigation community lost one of its greatest activists - Maureen Reilly died on December 11, 2012. Maureen was a respected researcher and educator whose contributions were valued across Canada, in the United States and Europe. She was the editor of Sludge Watch, an online newsletter with a worldwide readership. From an on-line obituary "...for almost two decades, Maureen has been an inspired, tireless and preeminent researcher and campaigner against land application of sludge, assisting local communities throughout North America fight industrial and municipal proposals to re-brand toxic effluents of various types and consistencies and dump them as 'fertilizer' and 'beneficial biosolids' onto our food, aquifers, into our lives and bodies." What You Can DoWhat You Can Do [PDF] Mailing ListTo receive alerts, news and information from the Sewage Sludge Action Network, please join our mailing list. Search |
When Michelle Obama created an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn earlier this year, the move was greeted with positive headlines and excitement among the food advocacy community. Here, we thought, was a First Lady who understood the importance of locally grown, whole and organic foods in her family's diet. 
In March, Michelle Obama delighted locavores when she planted an "organic" vegetable garden on the White House's South Lawn. For years, Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, and other sustainable food activists had been pushing the idea as a way to reseed interest in do-it-yourself agriculture. Less than two months later, the National Park Service disclosed that the garden's soil was contaminated with toxic lead, and the plot's educational value took on a new flavor as the New York Times and other papers discussed how to make urban backyards that are laced with old lead-based paint safe for growing kale and cauliflower. But those stories might have fingered the wrong culprit. 
